


when the wolf comes home.

by Galra Mama (robbierreyes)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Child Abandonment, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-14
Updated: 2018-02-11
Packaged: 2019-02-02 07:24:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12722190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/robbierreyes/pseuds/Galra%20Mama
Summary: Reunions were supposed to be happy, why wasn't this happy?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I was trying to use only bastille lyrics but thanks mountain goats.

There’s something about meeting your family for the first time, an air that this is supposed to be a happy occasion and realizing that it leaves a bitter taste in your mouth. Keith and the Pilot stared at each other, neither truly seeing what they really wanted to. 

 

There’s no loving and doting mother like the image Keith has built in his head, instead an awkward seven foot two purple alien is standing there, wringing their hands more nerves than hug. How dare they leave him, how dare they leave him alone a rock cold and unfeeling, a rock that he never belonged on? How could they leave him with a people that did not understand him? How could they leave him on a world that was only half his? How could they leave him never knowing the love of a mother when they could have given it to him? How could they leave him alone when his father died with no one but his then singular friend for comfort?

 

The Pilot wants to reach for him, but they cannot they cannot reach for the child they failed. They were not supposed to see him again until the galaxy was free and safe for him to roam. That was their fate wasn’t it. To fail this galaxy and their own loved ones in equal measures. A child or the galaxy had been the question posed to them by Kolivan and the one they had answered with a return to the galaxy and yet they failed it as much as they failed him. Here he stood before them a Paladin of Voltron. A place of honor among the history of the galaxy, a place of hope, a place in history books that will forget the Pilot.

 

They just sort of look at each other for a while longer than they probably should have. Words failing both of them. Before a bunch of words end up tumbling out of both of their mouths at exactly the same time before anyone could stop them. The Pilot practical as ever, their usual nerves of steel giving way for the Galra underneath. “I shouldn’t have left you. I am a stranger to you, I shouldn’t be a stranger to you but I am one and at this point there’s nothing i can really do about that except try to change the future that we have and I don’t know if I can do that but i can try if that is what you want, I understand if it’s not.”

 

“I don’t know you.” It’s a simple sentence but they can both feel the weight it carries, years of resentment, years of anger, years of fury, years of hurt. Almost two decades worth of abandonment and in that moment more so than either of them has ever felt towards each other, they are truly strangers in a way that no amount of love or bonding will ever be able to help or heal. “I don’t know if I want to know you. You left me. I don’t know why you left me but you don’t get to just show up and be my mom because you gave birth to me. A lot of stuff happened to me. A lot of stuff that you could have helped me avoid. A lot of stuff you missed out on because you weren’t there. You maybe my mother but you’re not my mother.”

 

The words should hurt worse than they do, but they’re well deserved and at the end of the day they do not know each other. They’re just two people who happen to share some dna and the universe and the people in decided that fact means more to the world than it ever truly will to them at this point. Besides it was a fair boundary to set. They’re still new to his life, they have no business butting into his business or his dreams like they had been there the whole time. The Pilot is incredibly grateful for Keith’s words in a way. In their mind and in their heart they’re still the mother to the infant that they left on Earth, not the mother of a strong revolutionary leader making real head way in the good fight against the Galra Empire. The fight they had been trying for so many years to contribute to. The fight they had left him over.

 

It was almost ironic in a way, that the reason they had left him alone on that rock would be the same thing drawing them together with him as an adult. There was nothing but the fight and your life. The Galra motto of  _ Victory or Death _ echoed dully in their head. He would succeed where they failed, he would lead Voltron to do what they had dedicated their entire life to doing. God in the history of the universe there had never been a being prouder of their child, than the pilot was in this very moment. “I will be no more than what you wish for me to be to you, you are an adult and that’s your choice to make now.”

 

On the other hand Keith did not share his mother’s glowing internal sentiment. He had almost hoped for a fight, for a chance for them to show that he was truly their child. To fight to be called his mother, something! Not a soft acceptance of his terms nothing at all like the lion he had expected. He had hoped for something. What he was not sure anymore, but it certainly was not this almost placid acceptance of his terms. Where was victory or death? Where was the fight? There had been fight in this person, he hoped there was fight in this person, why else would they leave him? Had they simply not loved him enough to stay when the stars had called?

 

“Keith.” The word startled him, they had yet to say his name. Avoiding it like the word stung on their tongue. Keith took a step away from them, his heart seizing in his chest, he needed to run away, to leave do something away from this person. It was too much to be around them. “That’s your human name right?”

 

Keith tilted his head in confusion, of all the things he had expected the Pilot to call him. That certainly was not one of them. “Yeah that’s my only name. Well I guess I’ve got the nickname Mullet if you count Lance nicknames, but I don’t know if that counts as one.”

 

“It’s not your only name, do you remember, Kolar?”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There're bound to be a ghost at the back of your closet, no matter where you live.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a complicated relationship with my mother

Mother and son seem so far away. Conceptually, they, the Pilot or as they had become known in Keith's frustrated mind an incredibly awkward and stand offish alien that I act just like were always going to be his mother. However in the practice of momhood they’re way below the bar. For starters Keith is having a lot trouble adjusting this purple menace with the image of mother that he had built in his mind

The mother in his mind was a kind dark haired human with endless patience and a warm smile. The Pilot was a seven foot purple creature that resembled more monster than they did any of that. FIrst of all they had served under Zarkon. It was one of the very first things they had told him. They were one of his oldest generals. Second of all, they were fucking purple. Thirdly, they were impatient as hell. The mother in his mind cut the crusts off of PB and J, the reality had made him a flavorless stew with alien meat and told him to eat because he was short and scrawny, thanks. Though he had found that bit slightly endearing even if he didn’t wanna talk about it. 

Keith reminded himself about how much that wasn’t the point as he sat on the nose of Red Lion. The point was the Pilot was a terrible mother who had no idea how to deal with a son at the beginning cusp of adulthood. He knew they were trying, badly and barely trying but they were trying. At least they had not told him to call them mother or worse mom. As a matter of fact they had specifically told him that they didn’t expect him to ever call them that because they had missed so much of his life. Which was fine by him, he was definitely inclined to agree on that front.

Keith huffed, flopping back on the cool metal as he continued to be frustrated at his mom situation, which showed no signs of improvement. It was going to be a hard day even without the added incredible pressure of a seven foot alien trying to establish some kind of relationship with him. The anniversary of his dad’s death was always hard on him. Absence certainly did make the heart grow much fonder, but especially with his mother’s feeble attempts parenting making it very clear which of his parents actually had parental instincts of some kind. Hint it wasn’t the fucking Pilot.

He could feel the tendrils of his eventual shut down reaching his brain. It was too early to really tell but he was certainly going to be burnt if everything kept moving at the pace that it was moving. The boy rolled onto his side, gently petting the giant robot as though it was actually a cat and not a giant galactic defensive weapon against evil space imperialists. Okay that thought made him chuckle a little bit. He really was living Star Wars, might as well start calling him Keith Skywalker. 

“Keith?” Fucking great. The boy hid curled up in his spot as he heard the crunch of his mother’s boots on the textured surface of the floor. The Pilot moved forward closer to red lion, their tone was gentle, it did not sound right on their rough throat and he really did not know how to handle it if he was being coming honest. He rolled the way so he showed his back to them. Not in the mood to face the person who could have helped get him through this pain the first time, if they had actually been there. Their reasons for leaving be damned, he really did not care anymore. He just wanted them gone. “I brought you some dinner.”

“You should leave.” It’s not that he was moody, had very good reasons for not wanting to be around this person. Reasons that no one except the Pilot seemed to respect or understand. They seemed to get that they had done terrible things by leaving him, why couldn’t everyone else? 

Keith stays curled up back to the door for almost twenty, before he finally looks down at where he heard the plate being set down. He was surprised to see the Pilot sitting next to his food curled up with their knees against their chest, staring at a second half full tray, never truly looking at it more like looking through it. It hurt to watch for reasons that Keith really did not currently understand. When they speak it quietly and in tones that seem oddly familiar like he could remember the tones from before he, himself could actuallys peak. “Shiro told me. About today.”

The fucking traitor is the first thought to pass through Keith’s mind as he watches the pilot crumple a little bit and he was suddenly very aware of some dirt under his fingernails. It makes sense on some level. That his father’s death might affect the Pilot in some way. He did know that they had been at least at one point married or something like it. He had seen his father walk around with a second ring on a chain for as long as he could remember. This fact does make him feel any better about anything in his life that has happened.

The last thing he needs on the anniversary is someone experiencing the grief of his father’s passing for the very first time. It was not fair. The Pilot could just waltz out of their lives for practically eighteen years and suddenly they felt like they had a right to just mourn him like that. It just wasn’t fucking fair.”He was so happy you know. The day were found I was going to have you.

Keith could not help but feel some kind curiosity blooming in chest and turning head away from them as he did. The last thing he needed for them to think that he’s actually interested in their shitty stories.

**Author's Note:**

> There might be a second chapter, idk it's up to you guys I guess.


End file.
